CEO pay at UK's top companies is 52 times that of typical worker, report finds
The chief executive of a FTSE 350 company is paid 52 times as much as a typical worker, according to the latest measure of inequality between bosses and their employees.
Median pay for FTSE 350 chief executives was £2.5m last year, which works out at 52 times a median worker's pay, according to a new report from the High Pay Centre campaign group.
The widest gap was found at the cleaning, security and waste management group Mitie, whose chief executive, Phil Bentley, was paid £14.7m, 575 times more than a middle-earner in the 2023-24 financial year.
Tesco ranked the second highest for the same period among FTSE 350 companies legally obliged to report the figure.
With a package worth nearly £10m, the supermarket's chief executive, Ken Murphy, was paid 431 times more than a typical Tesco worker that year. The most recent ratio, for the company's 2024-25 financial year, was lower, at a multiple of 373 as Murphy's pay fell to £9.2m.
Luke Hildyard, the director of the High Pay Centre, said a maximum pay ratio between chief executives and workers could help ensure that all workers received 'a fair reward for their contribution to business success'.
The pay-gap ratio was even starker among FTSE 100 companies, where the median pay of chief executives was 78 times higher than their median employees. When compared with the lowest-earning quartile, the multiple rose to 106.
The High Pay Centre suggested all companies should be required to publish their CEO-to-worker pay gaps in their annual reports, and include pay figures for outsourced workers in their calculations.
Its research found the pay-gap ratio between chief executives and workers had decreased in the past year, and that there had been growth in pay for the lowest-earning workers. However, the thinktank noted this could also have reflected changes such as a smaller workforce due to job cuts, outsourcing or relocation.
Tensions have been growing in the City over big pay packages for chief executives. Last month Centrica, the owner of British Gas, faced a shareholder rebellion after it handed its boss a multimillion-pound pay packet while energy bill payers struggled with record levels of debt.
Before the vote, the leading proxy adviser Institutional Shareholder Services recommended against supporting Chris O'Shea's pay rise as it 'was materially above those given to the wider workforce'.
Elsewhere, the pay package of Marks & Spencer's chief executive, Stuart Machin, jumped to more than £7m just weeks before the cyber-attack that rocked the retailer. It marked a 40% rise compared with the £5.1m he took home a year earlier, partly as a result of a sharp rise in performance-linked bonuses.
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Bosses in the banking sector are also expected to get bumper pay packages this year after the removal of the UK banker bonus cap in late 2023.
NatWest Group proposed a 43% increase in the maximum for its chief executive, Paul Thwaite, taking his total compensation to as high as £7.7m for the year. Meanwhile, his counterpart at Barclays, CS Venkatakrishnan, could earn up to £14.3m, a 45% increase. HSBC has suggested a 43% rise for Georges Elhedery, for a maximum payout of about £15m.
A spokesperson for Tesco said its most recent pay-gap ratio reflected a remuneration policy for executive directors tied to the performance of the business. They said: 'We remain committed to a competitive and fair reward package for all colleagues. Earlier this year we announced a further increase in hourly pay rates, equivalent to an investment of more than £900m over the last three years.'
A spokesperson for Mitie said its high multiple reflected a one-off award for its chief executive after the acquisition of another business, Interserve. They said: 'The acquisition saved 29,000 jobs, Mitie's revenues have more than doubled from £2.2bn to £5.1bn, and the share price has risen 125%.
'Our colleagues have also benefited from Mitie's strong financial performance during that time through the gifting of over £19m in free shares as well as £30m of value created for colleagues who participated in the 'save as you earn' scheme during that time.'
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